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Antron Brown's DragQuoia to debut at SEMA: Racer-customized vehicles up for vote to benefit charity

October 21, 2012

1 of 4Fat meats. Big wing. Nine-second ETs?

Photo by Toyota

2 of 4Drastically-reduced ride height. Zoomies.

Photo by Toyota

3 of 4Carbon-fiber induction hat.

Photo by Toyota

4 of 4While the interior was mostly gutted, the dash remains intact. Would you like Entune with your ludicrous acceleration?

Photo by Toyota

At a recent Autoweek staff convocation, a mildly pro-street 1967 Chevy Nova pulled up. It'd been a while since your author had mused on that particular style of automobile modification, but with the SEMA Show just around the corner, it was a reminder that while drag racing might not be what it was in the days that Fuel slingshots ruled quarter-mile strips from Pomona to Indianapolis, there's a measure of outré Rothian grandeur to a machine cammed to the gills, sitting down on tires as broad as the Mississipi River.

As such, Toyota, America's Car Company, commissioned NHRA Top Fuel driver Antron Brown to gin up a wooly-bully concept car for display at SEMA. The DragQuoia is, as the name suggests, a Sequoia hacked, stripped, prodded, boosted and subjected to all other manner of fettling and finagling in pursuit of glory on the erstwhile 1,320.

The performance target for Brown's SUV? Somewhere between nine and 10 seconds. As such, the engine features upward of 650 horsepower via a supercharger and a nitrous shot. That alone wouldn't be enough to turn the anticipated ET, so the ute went on a 1,600-pound diet. Four racing seats with five-point harnesses hold the family in place during high-G forward motion, and 21.5-inch wide tires make sure the power gets to the ground.

And it's all for charity. Toyota's had NASCAR's Kyle Busch do up a Camry; his on-track competitor Clint Bowyer conceptualized a Prius. NHRA Funny Car pilot Alexis DeJoria's Tundra desert PreRunner rounds out the field of racer-conceived wackiness. From October 20th through 29th, fans will be able to vote for their favorites via Toyota Racing's Facebook page. Prizes are a matter of course for some lucky voters, while the award for the winning vehicle is a $50,000 donation to the driver's charity of choice.